It's time to act.....

It has been a long afternoon today, an afternoon where I have been trying to distract myself from the fact that I need to leave my sister's place at Boston. Whenever time nears for departure during a visit to someone in my family or a friend, I get a kind of void feeling inside me, a sort of desperation to avoid that moment. So anxious I am that almost every time I tend to get an acidity in my stomach and today is no different. It's surprising that I don't get this feeling when I am away from people. 

Maybe that's the reason that most of my life changing decisions are made during travel away from my loved ones, a time when I become too emotional and start thinking too deeply. And yeah today I am again thinking after a long time. 

People who are accustomed to me, know that I am a social animal. For the past one and half years over here in America I have been missing my family and friends. Though I say to
myself that I am making some money and I need to be here for some more time, I am not sure whether there will be a time when I feel it's enough. My needs are ever increasing, I aspired to have a computer in my second year of college, now even after having a good phone, computer, camera,etc my lists is ever growing. 

I believe it's time that I chart a plan firmly return to India for friends and family are more important than money and gadgets. Hoping that this doesn't turn out to be yet another decision which was never implemented. 

Final Year CIT Students seriously injured in an accident - Help needed

Two final year IT students Pragadeeshwaran and Pradeep met with an accident yesterday. An Innova driven by a drunken driver crashed into them.

Seems Pradeep is almost brain dead and has very low chances of Survival. Pragadeeshwaran has had multiple fractures and is requiring a major operation at Ganga hospital. The surgery costs nearly 10 lakhs. They are in need of financial assistance.

Kindly use any one of the following bank accounts for donation and please do send a note to citpcs@gmail.com id with the amount you have sent.

SBI - 30585222934 - V.Mahesh,kochin.

ICICI BANK - 613601011109 - S.Sumithra,
Tirupattur , vellore dt.
INDIAN BANK- 711877100 - N.Sathish Kumar, Peelamedu, Coimbatore.

For queries please contact, Nithyanandhan- 9047367005 Suresh-9884279587

Latest Update

Pradeep has passed away. Lets try to pool in whatever possible and help the other guy.

Bhramaram - A beautiful movie

Badri has always been a connoissuer of Malayalam cinema. And as usual today he suggested me watching Bharmaram, starring Mohanlal. Mohanlal is one of the most versatile actors I have come across. Mohanlal has got the uncanny ability to come under the skin of the character and this movie illustrated it once more.

For the past 150 minutes Bharmaram made me stick in a single place and watch it. (Believe me, many a time I watch a movie in phases). I am of the firm opinion that a good movie, "Must make one think". That doesn't mean I don't like entertainers but movies are a very powerful medium and if used, rightly can bring about a change in the lives of people.

Bharamaram is a damn good movie. Blessy, the director, doesn't just keep you glued to your place, he also succeeds in implanting a few seeds of thought in your mind. Though I was able to guess the plot to some extent during the halfway marks, the screenplay was riveting and there were a few surprises at the end. As usual Mohanlal has fitted into the poignant character of Sivakutty with ease. Though the story was a tard slippery in a place or two, they can be termed as minor glitches. The way of story telling is realistic, intriguing and emotional. At the end of film you might wonder why our media doesn't showcase films of these sort. (Maybe I am not noticing).

The most immediate thing which came to my mind after seeing the movie was Papillon. Though Papillon doesn't have any thing in similar with Bharamaram, the reason for which the Papillon came to my mind was that in both places the main character was a person who was wrongly convicted. I have only read Papillon, never even thought of seeing the movie, for the book was so engrossing and didn't want to commit the mistake of watching something which wrecks the book. The Count of Monte Cristo also came to my mind, however it was a movie which was unrealistic and fantasized.

Thought of going to sleep but Sivankutty and Lakshmi kept on coming to my mind and made me write this. Going to sleep with restless thoughts about the thousands of people who were accused, convicted and punished for no harm of theirs. There is a saying in Tamil, "கண்ணால் காண்பதும் பொய்; காதால் கேட்பதும் பொய்; தீர விசாரிப்பதே மெய்", never miss to follow that.

If you are a movie enthusiast or somebody who wants to see a good movie don't miss Bhramaram.

(PS: Youtube has got the entire movie with subtitles.)

Every moment of Life is beautiful, live to the fullest.

I get amused whenever I see people who try to save every paisa they earn and end up missing the moments they live in. I am amazed by their belief and confidence that sacrificing this moment would make things better for the future. And in most cases those things generally turn out to be pretty materialistic and even worse when they arrive at that futuristic point, they would have turned their attention to something even more futuristic and missing the moment again.

Though I have come across many of that sort, I got totally pissed off last week when one of my friends avoided eating out just because it is costly. The costly dinner came out to $12 per head which amounts not even to 0.33 % of his monthly income. Of course he knew that it would be coming around that range only. This act of alone didn't force me to write this post, but a series of quite silly acts. For instance, he didn't want to travel 3 extra miles in the car for getting fresh vegetables, worse he consoled himself that a week old (believe even more) dry Spinach was fresh indeed. There are many more and I don't want to waste my time prodding into everyone of them deeply.

I am not against the habit of saving, it is a quality which all of us must develop. I believe we, Indians, are masters in the act of savings. These days, maybe I am seeing it now only, I see lot of people trying to hoard every single rupee the earn. They don't mind missing out beautiful places, events, parties, even good food, in short to be miserable in all aspects of life just for the sake of saving.

That made me wonder what the hell are they saving for? Because most people of these sort, I have come across, don't come from poor families but from families which have a decent standard of living and some wealth. When you dig a bit deeper, you could see Indians save for 3 important things,

1. Buying a house. Perfectly right, Home sweet home. Having one's own home will give a sense of satisfaction, especially when you live in it. But is everybody buying a home which is affordable?

Not quite so, they invest in a house in a busy or posh area of the city which will make both husband and wife pursue on their jobs under all circumstances for repaying the loan. As a result they fail to spend quality time among themselves and their kids, worse in many cases they don't even understand their kids. When at last they settle, life would have passed along and in some instances there are some irreparable damage in the families.

And one thing which I constantly hear when discussing this topic is that this is the best form of investment and security.

I haven't seen many who sell their homes when in times of need, I have seen only homes bequeathed from parents to Children.

2. Buying and hoarding gold saying it's the best form of security. Passing it from generation to generation and also continue the process of removing credit from the system and keeping it safe in bank lockers. This is worser than the first one because in the first one you at least get something tangible but this one is something absurd.

3. Marriages - The amount of money people invest in marriages is something which is so big these days. In most of the cases the entire family of the bride will be nervous, tensed and anxious that the marriage should go smoothly, in the process missing out to enjoy the occasion. The occasion for which the bride's parents should have started saving from the day the girl was born. Isn't it absurd that you spend all your life saving for an occasion and not able to enjoy it when it comes. Do we really need such big marriages? Can't we make them simpler and more happier? For these days, the photographer has made marriages a kind of civic ceremony, a place which is meant for shaking hands and giving pose to the photo with an smile which turns out to be artificial on many occasions.

On a lighter note, I would like to have my marriage where people come, sit down and chat among themselves about whatever they want. Whereas me and my better part will move across the entire hall meet up with people, have a lively chat and move on. Would it be better?

These 3 things I won't say aren't worth spending the way we are doing right now.

In Tamil, we have a saying, "நாய் பெற்ற தெங்கம்பழம் போல" literally translated becomes, "Just like a coconut in the hands of a dog.". What it actually means is that a Dog cannot eat a Coconut but it simply won't accept it, instead it will keep on rolling the coconut and carry with it to everywhere it goes. Neither the coconut nor the dog's time end up being useful.

Makkale there are many beautiful things out there which are not worth sacrificing for these three. Do go and chill out at times.

Then forget it....

This Strip of Calvin precisely reflects my attitude right now.

Some Useful Chrome Extensions

I have started loving Chrome pretty much and it has been my preferred browser for a few months. The most important thing which made me switch to Chrome was the space it provided, though you can disable toolbars in Firefox, Chrome seemed to be more spacious due to the Google mantra of keep it simple. I rarely have my bookmarks toolbar turned since the most frequent sites I visit are there on the Open Tab itself. Though Chrome still crashes then and there, it has become a lot less frequent these days. With the add ons , sorry extensions, slowly making their way, life has become quite easy with Chrome.

1. Application - It took a while for me to realize that you can have a page as an application shortcut which has the page sans the address bar, thereby giving you more space. Though it's just like a bookmark having a shortcut on the desktop, it gives a feel that it's an app of it's own.

Check out this video to know how to create one.

GMAIL, igoogle, Google reader and, from last week, Feedly sit as an application on my desktop. And placing the icon in system32 folder makes life easier for people like me who prefer to use the Win+R.

2. Feedly - Feedly is a front end for your Google reader. Though I started using Google reader more than 2 years ago I was never consistent. One of the primary reason is the reading interface which though simple is not a pleasant experience. Seems these folks also felt the same and instead of sitting like a lazy brat like me, they came out with this beautiful front end. Just install the add on for Chrome here and login using your Google account and see the difference.

You can link your twitter account also and view tweets, but I don't prefer this.

3.Chromed Bird - Though I have always felt the power and usefulness of twitter I never twitted or followed others twitters regularly. I found it a pain to go to twitter and see the tweets or tweet on my on. However after I installed Chromed Bird tweeting has become quite simple and easier.

You can tweet from any page you want without moving out and moreover it has an URL shortener which is even cool(I use http://bit.ly/). Also you can check the tweets of other people from any page. Check it out if you are a twitter or want to use twitter.

4. GMAIL Checker - This is places a gmail icon on the right of the address bar and lets you know the number of unread mails in the inbox. Clicking on it will open Gmail in a new tab. No more typing gmail.com to see any new mails have come. The add on is here. There is another extension called One Number, which does the same for Gmail, Reader, Voice and Wave. Since I am not using the Voice and Wave, I prefer this.

5. Send From Gmail - In case you want to forward any page to anyone this one is good. It opens a Gmail Compose in a new window(not a tab) with the Subject as the Page's title and the link of the subject in the body. Pretty neat and simple. Can be found here.

6. Delicious - I have been using Delicious quite extensively these days. (Please don't ask when I will be reusing the bookmarks, will help for sure one day. For example took all these links from Delicious only.) Earlier I used a tweak which had a link in the bookmark bar, but at last they have come out with an add-on which is neat and simple and works cool. It's over here.

In case you use Facebook you can try Beautify Facebook which adds some Gloss for facebook. Discovered this a couple of days back and not sure how it works, but worth trying.

Trying Tweet deck for the couple of days, seems good. Yet to explore it fully.

Do let me know in case you also have found some cool extensions for Chrome.

What happened to our Values?

Anybody who watched, Vetri lying hapless on the road with a group of people around him who dared not to act to save the life of a fellow human must have been annoyed and would have gushed with anger. For those who didn't are inhuman.

I was frustrated and could not even understand why at least one in the crowd could grab any of the numerous vehicles standing around and take the inspector to a nearby hospital. Why the heck should they wait for the ambulance to come and pick him up? Wasn't that insane? Is a human life less valuable compared to the interiors of the vehicle? Numerous questions arise.

Certainly I would want the heads of the Ministers, Collector who were at the scene. Though I do agree that the cameraman must also be questioned, I don't questioning him taking the video. For it had created not just a stir but made us sit back and think about the values of the society.

The incident evoked sharp criticism from everybody who can think and Sreevats suggested enacting a law, as in Germany, to punish those who do not help people in danger and distress.

Though creating a law can improve things, personally I feel enacting the law won't bring a sea of change. However it's better than keeping idle and forgetting this barbaric incident with time. How the law will be implemented is indeed a matter of speculation since the people who were at the place of the incident were law makers, custodian of the law and people of fourth estate who have the work of making sure the former are acting properly.

I think this incident makes us to stop form the fast paced day to day life and think about where the values in our society is heading. Vetri during his dire minutes was not alone, but there were couple of ministers, a collector, numerous policeman and a number of common man, of course everybody out there is a common man. What gives great pain is that none of the common man acted immediately and brings us to the question of the values existing today.

This may be the land in which Akbar, Ashoka, Vivekanda and numerous other man of great sanity, noble minds once walked upon. It seems we have just stuck their names in our history books and missed the good values they followed. This one case has embraced us just because of the fact that it was videotaped, certainly in a country of billion people more barbaric acts must and are taking place which never come to our notice. People like Vetri, Ruchika, Manjunath are exceptions and come to our notice evoking our emotions and slowly forgotten with time.

During my College days at 5h, we constantly used to discuss this topic extensively about where we as a society are heading towards. And one thing which I used to state and would love to reiterate over here is that, if we want to make a change we need to change the way the moral education is imparted at schools. I don't have the personal experience in other parts of India, but I can state with strongly that Moral Science has been a forgotten subject in the schools of Tamil Nadu.

It is a subject I would say which requires utmost importance, the art which when practiced properly can impart good values and virtues to the children who turn out to be the common man who witnessed the incident at Tirunelveli. So how do we go about doing the change is a different question. Just blabbering here in blog won't move things forward.

I will stop my rant for now and think about what I can do from my part to develop responsible citizens which is the want of the hour. This kind of death shouldn't occur for any human being alive.

What do you think about internet penetration in India?

Was just reading something on Google blog when I hit upon the World bank data search in Google. Just thought of seeing internet penetration in India compared to some countries.

See for yourselves, how India fared.